So I May Protect
by BurntFox
Summary: What are the greatest struggles we must face in life? Our inner demons? For Kurosaki Ichigo, this may be true. What happens when he is taught to defeat and conquer them, so he may protect those he cares about? Starts at fake karakura war arc
1. Chapter 1

Hey, this is my first time properly writing a fanfiction, but i've had this idea in mind for a while. While it starts very close to canon, it will diverge. Feel free to give feedback, and thanks for reading!

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A figure watched over the desolate plains, frowning at something far in the distance. He wore all pale orange clothes which clashed with his blonde hair, and strangely floated in the air upside-down, as if the rules of the world need not apply to him. Concern etched his face, it was easy to see he had thoughts troubling him. _I hope they will be alright without me, Aizen is a fearsome enemy._

Suddenly his eyes widened at the spike in power, and flashes of red, before a roar of pure hatred echoed through the wasteland. He then frowned, and his usually casual, cheery expression was replaced with a darker one.

* * *

 **A few minutes later**

"He's dead...?" Ichigo stared at the motionless body of the espada he had just been fighting... and losing against. Suddenly his head burned with flashes of memory, the fierce clashes, the nonchalant, almost bored expression on the arrancars face, the feeling of despair as his enemy released his reiatsu and it had literally rained down on him. The shock as his mask was destroyed in an instant, and his futile efforts against that hopelessly stronger than him. Grimmjow had been a challenge yes, but beatable with bankai and his hollowfication. This... had been a fight to stay alive, a hopeless one at that. He glanced at where the hole in his chest should've been, where Ulquiorra released a small but potent cero at point blank range, going through muscle and bone with ease.

More memories hit him, of a masked demon fighting Ulquiorra, going toe-to-toe against the 4th espada, even catching his spears with ease. He could feel the demons reiatsu, and the terror of it. It was strange, because it was almost as if he was a spectator in the demons body. He realised with a shock that the demon was holding zangetsu. Had it taken it off his body?

That wasn't the only unnerving thing he noticed. The demon had long, strawberry locks of hair down his back and was wearing what seemed like the remains of shredded shinigami clothing. He then saw the hole in the demons chest. Exactly where the cero had gone through his body.

"Impossible." Ichigo snapped out of his thoughts, and turned to see a barely conscious Ulquiorra looking at him with shock. "My 2nd released state could've matched the no.1 espada, even in his released state. No, that's not what surprises me: you are afterall the one Aizen-sama has his eye on. My cero went through your heart. How are you still alive, Kurosaki Ichigo?"

"I don't..." Ichigo began to say, but he felt the burning sensation in his head again as more memories came into his mind. He saw the demon overpower Ulquiorra, even in the face of the esapadas staggering regeneration capabilities, finally smiting him down in such a brutal and merciless way. He was almost sure this "demon" was a hollow, but he had never seen one so berserk and angry, and incapable of speech despite being way above the level of any basic hollow, even the menos grande. He couldn't get several nagging doubts out of his head: Why did he feel the demons emotions so strong, why did he almost sympathise with it, and why did he and it look so similar? _It can't be... Was that me?_

 _Not quite Ichigoo..._ he could hear the hollow in his head teasing him.

 _What does that mean?!_ Ichigo yelled back at his inner demon.

The hollow sneered at him, but gave no response.

"Kurosaki-kun?" Again Ichigo was taken out of his thoughts, this time by a trembling figure, lying against one of the ruined pillars staring at him in... fear? Another unconscious figure also lay there, surrounded in an orange shield.

"Orihime. Is Ishida...?"

"He will be fine." Inoue smiled at him. It wasn't her normal cheerful smile though.

Ichigo knew enough from the way she looked at him. It all made sense. In his near death state, his hollow had "borrowed" his body for a bit to finish what he couldn't. He punched the ground, bitterness welling up in him. He was still too weak, how could be possibly hope to protect those he cared about? It seemed no matter what, he relied on his hollow despite all he had been through, the power that he had been given.

He thought back to that day, when he first met her. He felt his fists tighten without realising it. _You'd better be okay Rukia._

In the corner of his eye he noticed that Ishida had regained consciousness, and as they caught each others eyes, mutual understanding passed between them. They knew they had to find the others and get back to karakura, now that Orihime was rescued. Other issues would have to wait for now.

"About time you stopped sulking." Ichigo jumped forwards as a familiar voice spoke behind him. How had he not noticed his presence earlier?

"Shinji? What are you doing here?" said Ichigo, startled at the sudden appearance of his visored trainer.

"I'm here to help you get your act together." Shinji sighed and rubbed his head, while casually swinging his sword around. "I technically should be with the others in karakura, but it seems fate had other plans. Even after all the practice with hollowfication yours is still vastly incomplete. I arrived in time to see your hollow break out and have a bit of fun with that guy." He said, pointing to Ulquiorras torn up body, which he could now see was starting to fade into ash. "In any other situation I would leave you to handle it by yourself, as each of us visored have done with our inner hollows. However after that fight, I now realise your demon is particularly... unique."

"What do you mean by that?" Ichigo questioned him

"I will explain later, right now we don't have time. I assume you were intending to meet up with everyone else still in hueco mundo?" Ichigo nodded. "Good. In that case, onwards!" and before he could protest Shinji was already walking away.

"Wait! Ugh, godammit." Ichigo only had more questions after that. He looked over to see Orihime gingerly lifting Ishida up, who seemed better than he had just a moment ago. Her healing abilities were truly remarkable. He then glanced at what remained of his opponent, and for a fleeting moment felt pity for him. He shuddered to imagine what it must've been like, facing that overwhelmingly evil reiatsu. The moment passed, and he ran over to catch up with the others, leaving behind countless ruined buildings and pillars.

 _I can hear the rain in my head again._ Ichigo hated the rain.


	2. Chapter 2

No-one said anything for a while as they ran across the endless desert, the only noise being the soft thuds of contact between sandals and sand. The view was similarly repetitive, with nothing but a sea of the golden dust, and the occasional grey building in the distance.

"So you're a quincy, right?" The sudden break in silence was by Shinji, who clearly was addressing Ishida. His response was a slight nod, and to tilt his glasses with his finger. "Indeed. What of it?"

"Nothing, just curiousity. There aren't many of you these days, but back when I was younger your numbers were comparable to that of the shinigami."

Ishida frowned at this statement, "That was what my father said. He also explained how the shinigami were responsible for our decrease in numbers."

"I see." The awkwardness could be felt in the air. "Anyway, are you all aware of whats happening back in the human world?"

"We are, is it true Aizen has invaded karakura town?" Ichigo answered, fearing the response.

"Yes and no. We were aware of his plans, and so have set countermeasures in place. To keep it simple, I can assure you your family will not be involved in the fighting." Ichigo breathed a sigh of relief, not realising he had been holding his breath. Orihime and Ishida looked similarly relieved. "However", Shinji continued, "That's only assuming we can win this fight. My companions are also helping the gotei 13, but even with us combined we have no idea if we can defeat Aizen. His true power is unknown to us, he may be even stronger than the captain commander himself. That's why," He looked straight at Ichigo, and Ichigo could see underneath the bangs, a pair of keen eyes stared at him, "We need a stronger hand so we can trump Aizen."

"So why are you here?" Ichigo was still confused. He knew Shinji was strong, strong enough to fight on par, if not beat most of the captains.

"That's what I was about to explain", Shinji said warily. "Have you forgotten, Aizen has closed off all exits from hueco mundo? I'm here to break everyone out."

Their eyes widened. Indeed, with the events that had occured recently, they had not stopped to even consider how they would escape this place. Their only focus had been to find the other shinigami (and chad). "Surely Aizen would've made the sealing foolproof", Ichigo said.

"Nothing is perfect, it's simply a matter of finding the imperfections", Shinji shrugged. "However, the point is that having 4 captains trapped here, on top of the defections seriously weakens the capabilities of gotei 13." As he finished saying this, they came across what seemed like the remains of a 50 foot wide building, about 20 feet high (or used to be). Inside the ruins they could see a group of weary looking figures with their hoods over them, masking their faces. One in particular was smaller than the others, and turned to look at them. A gust of wind blew off her hood, and as her dark eyes settled on the taller figure with carrot-coloured hair, her eyes softened and a smirk came to her face. _Ichigo._

 _Rukia. She was alive._ Despite how he currently felt, he couldn't help but return the smirk with his own. The other hooded figures stood, and he saw the 4 captains: Byakuya, Unohana, Kenpachi and Kurostuchi all regarded him and he nodded back at them. Renji was also there, who grinned at him, and he returned a smile.

"Chad!" He heard Orihime call out to their friend, who lay on the floor next to them, bandaged up and seemingly unconscious. _Shit, shit, shit,_ in his mind he started to panic. Was Chad dead? Had he failed to protect his friends?

"He's going to be fine." He was snapped out of his thoughts by Rukia, who caught his gaze, and as they locked eyes he felt like she could read his very soul. He felt so bare in front of her, as if his raw emotions would come tumbling out any second for all to see. Despite this, just looking at her gave him so much peace-

"Idiot! What's with that expression?" Rukia suddenly karate-chopped his head with her hand, and he looked at her, dumbfounded.

"What was that for!?"

"You and that stupid soppy face! Unohana treated him personally, theres no way he won't be fine, so stop looking like your about to give up on life!"

"Soppy? Give up on life? What are you on shorty?!" He comically shouted back at her.

"Hmph. Dumb carrot-top." She shrugged her shoulders and turned away from him. _"Just don't give me that kind of sad look."_

"What was that?"

"Nothing, you damn strawberry!"

Although they had their backs to each other and seemed annoyed at each other, there was unmistakeable smiles on each of their faces.

"Now now kids", Shinji waved his hands at both of them, a grin on his face. "You can play lovebirds later, for now we have more pressing matters." Ichigo and Rukia both spluttered at the not-so-subtle tease. When they had both settled down, Shinjis expression went serious again, "I have been working on a recent project with Urahara, and we have constructed a rudimentary device that allows travel between worlds that bypasses any current route used. In other words", he said, flashing his grin once again, "we can avoid all of Aizen's attempts to keep us here and get you all back."

"It can't be that convenient, there must be a catch", Kurotsuchi spoke up. Being a technological geek himself and in charge of divison 12, he was well aware of the dangers and unpredictability of transport between worlds.

"Indeed. There are certain... complications, however it is the best and only method we have of getting back. I will entrust this device to you", he said, handing a bright green and purple object to Kurotsuchi that looked a lot like a gun. "To use it, pull the trigger twice to open a portal up. From there I cannot say what the journey through the between will involve, but know that no matter how hopeless it appears, there will be a way out."

"Why are you telling me all this? Surely you should lead the expedition.", was Kurostuchis response.

"Ah, but I'm afraid I can't leave yet. You see me and this guy", he said, dragging Ichigo over to him, "Need to go over some of our training sessions."

"HUH?" Ichigo looked at him dumbfounded. "But you just said-"

"Forget what I said, you need more training. Or do you want the same thing to happen as it did against Ulquiorra", Shinji replied, saying the second part more quietly so the others could not hear.

Ichigo stared at him. He had a point, there was no way he could match Aizen with his current powers, and the last thing he wanted was to lose control of his hollow again. But there was no time. The war was happening now, not tomorrow or in a few days time.

"I'll make a deal with you." Shinji held out both of his hands. "10 hours. Give me 10 hours to train you and I will have you ready."

"There's no way 10 hours will make a difference."

"Just trust me on this one." Ichigo again could see his eyes, and they bore no hint of deceit, only the sharp wit and potential Shinji possessed despite his overwise relaxed appearance.

"Fine. This had better be worth it though."

"Great!" Shinji grinned again, before turning back to the others. "So yeah, thats the plan basically. Tell old man yama that we will be providing backup soon as we have finished up here."

"Very well." Byakuya nodded, and him and the others began to turn around, with the exception of Rukia and Orihime. Orihime glanced nervously at Ichigo, before turning around to follow the rest. _Kurosaki-kun... Please be careful._

"Oy, you'd better make it back from here," Rukia bluntly said to Ichigo.

"Well you'd better stay alive until I get out of this place." he replied back to her.

"Deal." She smiled, a genuine one, and just from that Ichigo felt the rain begin to settle down. "See you round Ichigo."

"See ya Rukia." He watched as Kurotsuchi opened the portal, and they left one by one, Rukia turning around and entering last.


	3. Chapter 3

"So now what?" Ichigo glanced around at the large building remains where him and Shinji stood in.

"Now we are going to fight. Draw your sword." The other man said, unsheathing his katana, shining against the moons reflection.

"Kinda boring, expected something a bit more original really. Ah well." Ichigo removed the bandages from his blade with a flourish, revealing the huge sword. He had barely finished this as Shinji leaped forward, his blade raised. They clashed with a jarring collision.

 _Shit, I forgot how strong he was!_ Ichigo thought as he struggled to hold his ground against the blondes surprising power. Appearances can be deceiving, and despite Shinjis build, he could easily match any of squad 11 in strength feats, with the exception of maybe Kenpachi.

"You'd better try harder, or your gonna die." Ichigo felt a chill as Shinjis reiatsu spiked, and he sent a dizzying set of strikes at Ichigo, who barely deflected each of the slashes before being blown back.

"Dammit! Bankai!" Ichigo yelled as his blade compressed and shrank, forming the thin, black blade that was tensa zangetsu. For a moment neither of them moved, staring the other down as the dust settled. Suddenly they both flashed away, and appeared in the middle, swords colliding with each other and sending back a wave of debris. Ichigo then jumped away again, and started circling Shinji in a blur. From a normal spectators eyes it was as if multiple orange-haired shinigami circled the one target in the middle, who despite his predicament still had that smirk on his face. His grin faltered for a moment as he sensed motion in his blind spot, and turned to block a vertical strike from Ichigo, swinging his blade in a swift horizontal motion to deflect to would-be fatal blow. These surprise strike continued for a while as Ichigo switched between quick but vicious strikes, and circling his opponent for a weakness, giving him no moment to rest, or even counter him.

"Better." The grin was back, and as Ichigo ducked back into circling Shinji, he raised his hand. "I suppose it's time I got a little serious..." Ichigo jumped back as Shinji's brought his hand across his face, and the unmistakable hollow mask materialised where his face had been. Instantly the air felt heavy, and the ground around Shinji shook, as if his very presence was causing the tectonic plates to tremble and shift. Then he simply disappeared.

Ichigo's eye widened, looking for where he had dissappeared to. _Where is he?!_ That overwhelming presence had vanished into thin air, no trace of his abnormally large reiatsu. There was no warning, he simply felt the kick to the solar plexus and was sent flying into one of the buildings.

 _What was that..._ Ichigo thought, panting and struggling to get out of the rubble, which was the remains of the building he had collided with. Before he could raise his sword, Shinji was on him, hitting him with the base of his sword, before delivering a left hook into Ichigo's face, causing him to spit blood and spinning his body around from the sheer momentum.

"Was that it? You may as well let your hollow do your fights from now on." Ichigo knew Shinji was taunting him, but the boredom in his voice pushed him over the edge.

"Screw you!" Ichigo shouted, and brought a hand to his face. _I'll show him whos in control._

 _He's got a point you know._ Ichigo ignored the hollow voice in his head, and brought the mask to his face, feeling his strength growing as his face was replaced with the mask. However there was something different about his mask, rather than the normal streaks of red down the left side there was 2 vertical streaks, one on each side.

 _Indeed, even his mask has changed. It seems it has been awoken._ Shinji stared impassively at Ichigo, the Pharaoh-like mask giving away no emotions.

"Getsuga tenshou!" He was snapped out of his thoughts as Ichigo built up a particularly large amount of of reiatsu at the tip of his blade, before releasing it as a curved wave. This was different to his old getsugas, with sparks of red sizzling inside it. Shinji raised his blade to block it, and with his blade parted the wave, splitting it in two, each half crashing into the ground nearby, destroying even more of the surrounding buildings. _It seems his attacks have his reiatsu in them too. Guess it's time to start the proper training. I would fight him with my shikai, but theres no point now he's reached this stage._

"Ichigo." The ginger was preparing another moon-fang, but stopped to look at Shinji, who had appeared above him in the blink of an eye. "Did I ever tell you that Aizen was my lieutenant over 100 years ago?" Ichigo shook his head. "Everyone seemed to trust him back then, but I always felt something was a little off about him. It was the way he looked at people, his face said he was talking to an ally, but his eyes looked at everyone and anything as if it was trash. Good thing I had my suspicions I guess."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"I'm about to show you an ability only 3 other people have ever seen: Urahara-san, Kyoraku, and old man Yamamoto himself. Needless to say you cannot tell another soul about this ability." He then brought his arms stretched out either side, forming a cross shape, his zanpaktou still in his right hand. He then dropped his sword. "Bankai. Gensoku no sekai (slowing world)."

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Thanks for all reading up to this point! I should be posting new chapters pretty much everyday, so feel free to follow this story if it interests you. This is where it gets interesting. *grins evilly* I've got a lot more ideas, but they are in development right now. Oh and if you have any feedback, or just wanna chat feel free to review this story as well. Until the next chapter!


	4. Chapter 4

Ichigo watched as the sword fell, entranced by it. The blade had taken on a transparent colour, like glass, and the handle had a larger, bronze metal ring on the end, almost like the blade and handle were the hand and base of a clock. He watched as the blade was still falling, yet for some reason-

"It feels like the blade has slowed down? You're not wrong." Ichigo looked stunned at the ex-captain, who glided down to where the sword was falling, now merely inches each second. Just before it reached the ground, he grasped the bronze handle, and spun the blade around, as if the hand on a clock was moving. "In basic terms, my bankai is a time-manipulation ability that allows me to slow everything within a certain distance to my sword. The details are more complex, however all you need to know is that with my current spiritual power, it has a limit of 10 hours, and a speed of 2% in comparison to outside this zone. In other words," he grinned at Ichigo, who now noticed the green glow around them which likely marked out the zone, "we have 500 hours to train you up for Aizen."

"Thats... incredible." Ichigo was lost for words. He'd seen many crazy abilities, having fought many of the 13 captains, but none of them had something on the level of time-manipulation. "So this is why you didn't want Aizen seeing your bankai."

"Now you understand. God knows what a madman like him would do with this ability." Shinji frowned. "Anyway, now it's time I explain the proper training."

* * *

 **8 hours later, fake Karakura town**

Toshiro panted heavily, dodging multiple shift strikes aimed at his head before jumping back to gain a moments rest. Despite the freezing cold his wings emanated, sweat was dripping from his brow. He knew he was at his limit, unlike his enemy, who showed hardly any signs of tiredness. The no.3 espada glanced at him with disgust. "So this is all a captain is capable of? How disappointing."

He knew his bankai was incomplete, partially due to his remarkably young age for a captain, but despite this the words stung him. He glanced over his shoulder, and saw but a part of the havoc brought on the replica town.

Almost a third of the buildings were either damaged or rubble, trees were scattered and bent at strange angles, and electricity lines lay across the roads, the wire snapped and strewn across the landscape. Multiple craters lay were particularly vicious fights had been, including one almost 100 feet in diameter where one of the espada (Toshiro believed it was the first) had unleashed a huge cero, which had thankfully missed any of his allies.

"Do you really think its time to be looking away?" He jumped away, purely by instinct, and avoided a near-fatal slash from his opponent. "You should worry about yourself before your friends. I suppose it dosen't matter either way: You will all be dead soon."

Toshiro glared at her, knowing she was baiting him. Instead he tried to maintain his composure, and figure out a logical way of defeating her. _I didn't want to use this on one of his minions, but it seems I have no choice._

Before he could prepare himself, Harribel was on his again in an absurd burst of speed, followed by another furious burst of slashes. Toshiro was a prodigy in swordsmanship himself, but her strange ambidextrous style, combined with her released form boosting all her abilities was proving to be incredibly troublesome. His eyes widened as she switched hands again, swinging the sword up with her right and barely missing his eye, before catching it in midair with her left and bringing down a ferocious swing, which Toshiro barely had time to block, the force of it sending him flying down into one of the buildings. Leaving nothing to chance, she immediately built up a huge amount of reiatsu into a cero nearly the size of herself, before sending it down to where the young captain lay, the golden yellow beam destroying all in it's path and producing a large debris cloud, obscuring the blast zone.

She was sure he would be dead after that. That had been her strongest cero, and while it may not compare to the higher ranked espada, it was easily enough to finish the likes of him. As the debris began to settle she could see what seemed like an arm, still grasping its sword, lying on the ground, separate to the body, which she could not see, but the result was obvious. _Well I guess that's that._ Around her, she started to see what looked like small snowflakes falling from the sky.

However, just before she turned away her eyes widened as she saw it turn into ice, then disintegrate. _But he used his ice clone earlier!_

"You made 2 serious mistakes this fight: You assumed I was telling the truth about having only one ice clone, and you underestimated the strength of a captain." She turned sharply, seeing Toshiro in the distance just beyond where the debris cloud had been. She noticed the snow was starting to get thicker. _So he made the clone while the debris was around him after his inital collision with the ground, and hid away until the cero hit the ice clone, before moving behind the dust cloud until it settled. Why didn't he attempt a suprise attack while I was distracted by the cloud?_

"You also made a mistake, not attacking me while I was preoccupied with searching for your body."

"Fool. Have you not noticed it yet?" Her eyes widened as it dawned on her the meaning of his words. She began to move, trying to escape the even thicker snow raining down upon her.

"It's too late. Hyoten Hyakkaso!" Toshiro yelled, and as the now giant snowflakes hit Harribel, they burst into flowers of pure ice, freezing her body and despite her futile efforts she became encased in many of these flower in a matter of seconds. As the 100th hit her body, she made her last movements and became entirely frozen in a grand statue of the beautiful but deadly flowers.

* * *

Kyoraku whistled as he saw the statue of flowers bloom over from where he stood "Phew, Toshiro-kun really went all out there didn't he?" Secretly he allowed himself a moment of relief. He had been worried about the boy-captain, as he knew more than many his potential, but giving such responsibility to a young one would be too much for most. He seemed to handle that fight with a lot of maturity though, more than he would have even hoped from the prodigy.

He had fared better than many of the others at least. He frowned, looking over at where Kira and Rukia were struggling to keep alive many of the injured shinigami until Orihime and Unohana could reach them, while Chad guarded them incase of any surprise attacks. Those that were still alive at least. Thankfully all that remained now was Aizen and Starrk, but they had paid heavily.

Soifon had been the first casualty, having been caught by no.2's death miasma, which there was no escaping from, even with her remarkable shunpo. In her dying moments however, she provided a crucial distraction with her bankai, which the visored Hachi and Lisa had taken full advantage of, with Hachi sealing his body from limbs with his cubes and Lisa severing them completely, leaving his head and body to rot, rather ironically.

The various fraccion had proved to be relatively simple to handle, with many of the stronger lieutenants handling them by themselves (although the majority were exhausted or injured as a result of these fights). The exception was one of no.2's fraccion, who brought Ikkaku to the point of death, and seriously wounded Komamura before he was finally defeated with the help of the captains who had arrived from Hueco Mundo.

Of course there had been Wonderweiss, that abomination Aizen had created. It had taken the rest of the visored, with the exception of Shinji obviously, to defeat that thing, and it had cost Mashiro and Love their lives, while Hiyori was still in critical condition.

Kyoraku didn't know how they could've handled Tousen and Gin without the help of their reinforcements. Tousen had proved a huge problem with his bankai, sealing Komumura within it and nearly finishing him before the surprise appearance of Kenpachi, who with his natural fighting style had been able to fight Tousen even in the sense-numbing environment, injuring the deserter enough to force him to release his bankai. Renji had managed to finish the job with his bankai, faking death and at the last minute causing zambimarus fragments to explode around Tousen, who had been unaware of the ability despite knowing Renji's others. Both Renji and Kenpachi were now being tended to by Unohana and Orihime along with the others.

The true monster however had been Gin. Initially Ukitake had been the only one fighting him, and Kyoraku would've put Ukitake at his level, were it not for his illness. But, Gin being the snake he was, took advantage of this weakness, and while they had a brief and furious exchange where Gin managed to hold his own against one of the strongest and most experienced captains, he caught Ukitake by surprise as he started to have one of his fits, cutting off the white-haired shinigami's right hand in a brutal display of mercilessness. Before he could finish the job, Byakuya and Kurostuchi intervened, and with their combined powers they were, just barely able to defeat Gin.

Coming out of his thoughts, he glanced over at his opponent, who was still looking at the statue of ice. "That boy is something isn't he?" He smirked at Starrk, who apathetically stared at the captain as if he had only just noticed his presence. "I s'pose."

"You really aren't much of a talker are you?"

"Not really."

Kyoraku sighed. Despite his easygoing attitude, he was more perceptive than he let on, and he knew this guy, like him probably hated this kind of bloody warfare. Not that this took away from the destructive powers this guy possessed, as proved by the giant crater below the both of them.

He felt the wind shift, and in a split second Starrk was on him, shooting multiple cero bullets at him, all a range of shapes and sizes. As he dodged between each, he noticed the bullet shapes weren't just for show, as some would curve off at weird angles, as if they predicted the very path he was following to dodge. This made finding a route to dodge them all near to impossible. A few caught the edge of his robe, and although he otherwise came on unscathed, his flower kimono was no so fortunate.

"Aren't you a sly one? You pretend you don't care about this fight, then go and try pulling one on me with those weird ceros." Kyoraku said, throwing the remains of his robe down to Ukitake, who was currently resting on the roof of a building nearby. _I can't imagine the thousands of calculations you would need to go through to shape those ceros and predict those trajectories. If it was anyone but me or Yamamoto, they would not come out of that unharmed. He may not act like it, but he is truly the no.1._ "Can I persuade you to withdraw?"

"Hmm, as much as I'd like it I did agree to fight for Aizen, and I don't back down from my word."

"Interesting, you have quite a strong sense of loyalty for one you know has betrayed previous comrades."

"There are... circumstances behind my loyalty to him."

"A pity." They both knew the time for words was over, as they finally came to regard the other properly, before both disappearing in a flash, before appearing up in the sky, the collison of their swords sending sparks and a huge wave of energy back from them.

* * *

 **Thats it for this chapter, thanks a lot for reading! I have brushed over quite briefly the detail concerning these fights, but I wanted to save the detail for the big ones. If enough people ask I may throw in a couple flashbacks showing these fights in more detail. Next chapter should be out tomorrow :)**

 **Thanks again, and feel free to favourite, follow and review**


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